CLEVELAND — The magic continues.

Kerry Carpenter, with two on and two outs in the top of the ninth inning, swatted a 2-2 slider deep into the right-field seats off All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase, breaking a scoreless tie and sending the best-of-five American League Division Series back to Detroit tied 1-1 with a 3-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians, stunning a sellout crowd at Progressive Field on Monday.

Clase, who barely escaped the eighth, got the first two outs in ninth before Jake Rogers and Trey Sweeney, the Nos. 8-9 hitters in the lineup, ripped singles.

Carpenter, who didn't start the game against lefty Matthew Boyd, worked the count even 2-2. He saw three straight sliders from Clase. The third one was left in the middle of the plate and Carpenter demolished it. The ball left his bat at 110.8 mph and flew 423 feet.

Those were the Tigers' first runs in this series.

Right-hander Beau Brieske locked down the bottom of the ninth for the save.

Tarik Skubal, again, was an absolute beast on the mound for the Tigers. He pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits with eight strikeouts. He hasn’t allowed a run in 27 straight innings.

He was perfect for 4 1/3 innings, setting down the first 13 Guardians’ hitters, striking out eight of those.

He got into a brief spot of bother in the fifth. Josh Naylor spanked a 97-mph four-seamer into right-center gap for a double. Skubal then hit Jhonkensy Noel with a pitch that was nearly a strike. Noel’s arm was extended over the plate.

The sellout crowd at Progressive Field was on its feet booing and jeering at Skubal. He was unfazed. He got Andres Gimenez, on the very next pitch, to bounce into an inning-ending, 4-6-3 double-play.

Skubal stomped and screamed his way back to the dugout.

He got in trouble again in the sixth. No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio bounced a ball over the bag at third for a double with one out and Steven Kwan followed with a jam-shot single to left.

But again, Skubal was undeterred. He induced another double-play, this one on a softly-hit grounder by David Fry. Shortstop Trey Sweeney and second baseman Colt Keith made a speedy and textbook turn.

This time as Skubal walked back to the dugout, he held out his arms seemingly imploring the crowd to bring it.

It was an incredible performance, especially given the all-but-must-win nature of this game and the zero margin of error he was working with.

He was leaning hard on his four-seam and sinker (66% of his pitches). He got 17 called strikes with those two pitches, along with seven whiffs on 12 swings with his changeup.

Boyd, the former Tiger, was at the top of his game for 4 2/3 innings, fending off two major scoring chances. Rookie Justyn-Henry Malloy, batting leadoff, singled in the third inning and after a walk and long fly out by Andy Ibanez was on third with two outs.

Boyd got Riley Greene to ground out to second on one pitch.

Wenceel Perez led off the fourth with a double and was on third with one out. But Boyd struck out Parker Meadows chasing a slider and then blew away his old battery mate Jake Rogers with a 93-mph fastball.

Malloy ripped a single into the right-field corner in the fifth but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double by a strong throw by Noel.

Boyd, in just his ninth start since coming back from Tommy John surgery, featured a lively four-seam fastball (92-94 mph) which he used to set up his changeup (seven whiffs on 11 swings) and slider. He struck out five.

The Tigers didn’t get another base runner until the seventh when Rogers drew a two-out walk. Matt Vierling ripped a one out double in the eighth against reliever Hunter Gaddis, the Tigers’ first hit off the Cleveland bullpen in seven innings in this series.

But with two outs, Guardians’ manager Stephen Vogt summoned Clase.

Perez hit a sinking liner to left. Kwan got a good jump on the ball and made a diving catch just before the ball hit the ground. Replays confirmed that he caught it.

Statcast and the website Inside Edge both gave Kwan a one in 10 chance of making that catch.

Close, but yet another empty inning for the Tigers’ offense. At that point they'd scored in just three of 35 innings in the postseason.

That would change an inning later.

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